Distributions and Operating Systems

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Ruben Schade ☛ How BlackBerry failed to respond to the iPhone

    Dare Obasanjo read an article about the rise and fall of BlackBerry back in 2016, and highlighted one of the more interesting observations: [...]

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• University of Toronto ☛ Understanding the NMH repl command's '-cc me' and '-nocc me' options

  Suppose, not hypothetically, that you use NMH as your mail client and that you would like to cc: yourself on all of the mail you send; this is what I do. It's relatively easy to set this up for the NMH comp command, which creates new messages. There are a number of approaches and it's easy to understand all except the most complex ones, and since you have to create the complex ones yourself, presumably anyone who can set it up knows what they're doing. However, understanding what you can do and how it works with the NMH repl command for replying to mail is not so straightforward or helpful, and for years I've been not really understanding what I was doing with it.

• Nzyme.org ☛ Nzyme v2.0.0-alpha.4 has been released

  Next up in the series of v2.0.0 alpha releases is version alpha.4. It comes with several new features and a ton of improvements based on feedback from users.

• Education

  • AsiaBSDCon ☛ AsiaBSDCon 2024

    AsiaBSDCon is a conference for users and developers on BSD based systems. The next conference will be held in Taipei, Taiwan, in 21-24 March, 2024. The conference is for anyone developing, deploying and using systems based on FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFlyBSD, Darwin and MacOS X. AsiaBSDCon is a technical conference and aims to collect the best technical papers and presentations available to ensure that the latest developments in our open source community are shared with the widest possible audience.

• GNU Projects

  • The Register UK ☛ Free software pioneer Richard Stallman is battling cancer

    Richard Stallman has revealed he is undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of cancer of the white blood cells, but says that his prognosis is good.

    The 70-year-old Stallman appeared at the GNU Project's 40th anniversary celebration in Switzerland on Wednesday a very changed figure. The GNU project is currently celebrating four decades of work on Free Software, as we wrote last week, and Stallman appeared on stage to make the closing speech in Biel/Bienne. His characteristic long hair is gone, as is his beard.

  • Richard Stallman Says He Has Cancer

    Richard Stallman revealed his diagnosis of lymphoma at the GNU Hacker's meeting in Biel, Switzerland yesterday. He did not share much about his health condition but did indicate that it is "manageable" and that he expects to be around for many more years ahead.

Leftovers

• [Old] University of Hawaii ☛ Cargo Cult: Strange Stories of Desire from Melanesia and Beyond

  THIS BOOK TRACES the genealogy of the term cargo cult. This is a term that has enjoyed considerable currency within academic anthropology and has also spread far beyond that discipline. I wrote most of this story during 1990–1991, when I was a Rockefeller Fellow in the Humanities, hosted by the University of Hawaii Center for Pacific Islands Studies. I thought at first that I was writing an overview of contemporary social movements in the South Pacific. But a short retrospective on cargo cults (ten pages at most) ran away with itself and turned itself into a book.

  The deeper and deeper I trailed into cargo cult’s history—its origins, and its life and times—the stranger its story became. The history of a single academic term may seem an outlandishly trivial pursuit, but the cargo-cult story is neither petty nor insignificant. This story recapitulates, in summary form, three generations of anthropological theory and Pacific Studies. Moreover, the term’s genealogy exposes a heritage of powerful motifs and themes that constitute certain fundamental understandings of Pacific Islanders, along with essential truths we hold about ourselves.

• [Old] Jared Diamond ☛ Guns, germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies

  Guns, Germs, and Steel seek to answer the biggest question of post-Ice-Age human history: why Eurasian peoples, rather than peoples of other continents, became the ones to develop the ingredients of power (guns, germs, and steel) and to expand around the world. An extraterrestrial being visiting the Earth 14,000 years ago could have been forgiven for failing to predict this outcome, because the human populations of other continents apparently also possessed advantages. Africans enjoyed a huge head start, because Africa is the continent with by far the longest history of human occupation. North America is a big fertile continent, with the result that it supports the richest and most productive nation today. Australia provides by far the earliest evidence for human ability to cross wide water gaps, and some of the earliest widespread evidence for behaviorally modern humans. Why, nevertheless, were Eurasians the ones to expand?

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Amazing Advance in Spinal Repair Allows Injured Mice to Walk Again

    Could this work in humans?

  • Science Alert ☛ 10 Billion Years Ago, a Star Exploded. It Could Save Cosmology.

    A new H0pe.

  • BIA Net ☛ Ministry Science Board member recommends mask use for people with symptoms

    This variant, unlike previous ones, primarily presents with upper respiratory tract infection symptoms, noted Prof. Kara.

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Say Earth Will Become a Barren Wasteland

    As the University of Bristol noted in its press release about the unsettling research, the school's state-of-the-art climate modeling supercomputer found that the planet will, during the creation of Pangea Ultima, run an average of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit due to CO2 being shot into the atmosphere from tectonic volcano activity.

  • System76 ☛ Exploring Astrophysics and Gravitational Lensing with the Lemur Pro

    Massimo tells us that his particular interest in astrophysics is in how clusters of stars evolve and how our observation of that can be aided through gravitational lensing.

  • Tedium ☛ The Science Oven: A reflection on the microwave oven, perhaps the most important invention to come out of a World War that sparked a lot of them.

    Today in Tedium: Say what you will about the world in which we live, but the microwave has done more to shape it, for good and for bad, than any other individual food-cooking device. Having a device that can heat food in a matter of a couple of minutes, even if it does so terribly, is obviously a significant improvement on what came before that point. It means that people can go to the office and have a hot lunch without having to go to a restaurant or cafeteria. It simplifies prep processes in kitchens—both at home and in commercial settings. And if we did not have it, popcorn would be a huge pain to make. But there’s one thing to consider about the microwave that most people probably don’t: It was a technology largely developed during wartime by a defense contractor—by accident. Today’s Tedium leans into the radiant waves of the microwave. — Ernie @ Tedium

• Education

  • Uwe Friedrichsen ☛ Rethinking job ads - Part 1

    Sometimes I read through job ads and almost always they leave me a bit at a loss. They always ask in a checklist style for some traits and experiences that based on my experience are either rather pointless or not really essential. Or they ask for a very narrow hyper-specialized profile garnished with the usual “you should be team-minded” antidote which is even worse regarding today’s challenges.

    They never ask for the traits and capabilities that from what I have seen really make a difference regarding how effective a person will be in that role they are looking for – and hopefully even beyond that role.

    What do I mean with that?

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Power Supplies Without Transformers

    For one-off projects or prototyping, it’s not too hard to find a wall wart or power supply to send a few joules of energy from the wall outlet to your circuit. Most of these power supplies use a transformer to step down the voltage to a more usable level and also to provide some galvanic isolation to the low voltage circuit. But for circuits where weight, volume, or cost are a major concern, a transformer may be omitted in the circuit design in favor of some sort of transformerless power supply.

  • Hackaday ☛ CPU Built From Discrete Transistors

    We all know, at least intellectually, that our computers are all built with lots of tiny transistors. But beyond that it’s a little hard to describe. They’re printed on a silicon wafer somehow, and since any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, they miraculously create a large part of modern society. Even most computers from 40 or 50 years ago were built around various inscrutable integrated circuits. On the other hand, this computer goes all the way back to first principles and implements a complete processor out of individual transistors instead.

  • Bruno Rodrigues ☛ ZSA Voyager review

    Now for something completely different than our usual programming: today I’m sharing my thoughts on the latest ZSA mechanical keyboard, the Voyager. First things first: this is in no way shape or form sponsored by ZSA. But Erez, if you’d like to send me money you’re more than welcome.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • JURIST ☛ China law professor raises concerns about Fukushima nuclear water discharge at UN meeting

    A Chinese law professor and human rights expert expressed concern about Japan’s nuclear water discharge from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station during the 54th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

  • New York Times ☛ An Invasive Mosquito Threatens Catastrophe in Africa

    A malaria-carrying species that thrives in urban areas and resists all insecticides is causing outbreaks in places that have rarely faced the disease.

  • New York Times ☛ Mosquitoes Are a Growing Public Health Threat, Reversing Years of Progress

    Climate change and the rapid evolution of the insect have helped drive up malaria deaths and brought dengue and other mosquito-borne viruses to places that never had to worry about them.

  • BIA Net ☛ ‘Deaths caused by rabies are unacceptable’

    In Turkey,  emergency service admissions due to risky contact and animal bites are significantly higher than the world average, health professionals’ organizations have pointed out.

  • University of Michigan ☛ Tuberculosis is curable. Corporate greed might be too.

    Last week, activists and patients won a breakthrough in the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious disease: tuberculosis. Cepheid, a medical equipment manufacturer owned by the multinational conglomerate Danaher, agreed to slash the price of their multi-drug resistant tuberculosis tests after lobbying from organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and Partners In Health...

  • Science Alert ☛ Training Your Heart And Muscles Could Be The Key to Brain Health in Old Age

    It's all connected.

  • New York Times ☛ How to Use Social Media, According to Teen Girls

    Parents and public health experts have a lot to say about what adolescent girls do on their phones. We asked teens to weigh in.

  • Gizmodo ☛ Kids These Days Get 4,500 Notifications a Day and Hate Facebook, New Study Says

    “Because notifications are so numerous and occur day and night, they require management by young users,” the study reads. “Snapchat and Discord ranked highest in the number of notifications sent to participants in a typical day, with some participants receiving hundreds of messages from these platforms.”

    Social media platforms across the board are pulling teenagers in for engagement, with TikTok being the most popular within the study’s population. 50% of the teenagers involved used TikTok in some capacity during the week of data collection for an average of one hour and 52 minutes. Teenagers involved in the study told the research team that TikTok was an easy source of entertainment with an incredibly robust algorithm when compared to other video-sharing platforms like YouTube and Instagram.

  • Common Sense Media ☛ 2023 Constant Companion: A Week in the Life of a Young Person's Smartphone Use [PDF]

    Research like this helps shed light on what young people are really doing on their phones, and allows families, educators, and leaders to better understand where and when to provide support. But the industry can take steps to recognize that young people need to be able to use their phones for all of their important benefits but without the challenges that negative content, persuasive design, and aggressive business models pose to digital well-being.

  • Vice Media Group ☛ People Experience ‘New Dimensions of Reality' When Dying, Groundbreaking Study Reports

    “Most doctors are taught and believe that the brain dies after about five or 10 minutes of oxygen deprivation,” Parnia said. “One of the key points that comes out of this study is that that is actually not true. Although the brain flatlines after the heart stops, and that happens within seconds, it doesn't mean that it's permanently damaged and [has] died. It's just hibernating. What we were able to show is that actually, the brain can respond and restore function again, even after an hour later, which opens up a whole window of opportunity for doctors to start new treatments.”

  • Science Alert ☛ "Carrot Tans" Are Trending on Tiktok. Here's What The Science Says.

    Carotenoderma gives your skin a yellow/orange pigment that is not the same colour you'd turn from a sun tan. It is concentrated in the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet and smile lines near the nose.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • The Register UK ☛ Microsoft Bing Chat pushes malware via bad ads

    According to Segura, the malicious Bing Chat ads followed from someone compromising the ad account of a legitimate Australian business and creating two malicious ads, one aimed at duping network admins interested in an Advanced IP Scanner utility and one targeting lawyers interested in case-management code biz MyCase.

  • Security Week ☛ Chinese Gov [Crackers] Caught Hiding in Cisco Router Firmware

    A Chinese state-sponsored APT called BlackTech has been caught hacking into network edge devices and using firmware implants to stay hidden and silently hop around the corporate networks of U.S. and Japanese multinational companies.

    According to a high-powered joint advisory from the NSA, FBI, CISA and Japan’s NISC, BlackTech has been observed modifying router firmware on Cisco routers to maintain stealthy persistence and pivot from international subsidiaries to headquarters in Japan and the United States.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Human-Like A.I. Is Deceptive and Dangerous

    Deceptive anthropomorphic design elements highlighted in the report are fooling people into falsely believing A.I. systems possess consciousness, understanding, and sentience. These features range from A.I. using first-person pronouns, such as “I” and “me,” to expressions of emotion and opinion, to human-like avatars with faces, limbs, and bodies. Even worse, A.I. can be combined with emerging and frequently undisclosed technologies – such as facial and emotional recognition software – to hypercharge its manipulative and commercial capabilities.

  • Matt Rickard ☛ Is AI a Platform Shift?

    You can think of a platform shift as a change in the dominant layer that applications are built on. It might look like Software > Hardware. Or Hardware > Software. A new layer becomes the dominant layer (e.g., most applications are being built on top of the new layer rather than the previous layer). As a result, the new layer might be able to capture the majority of the value from the previous generation (e.g., it might accrue the majority of the profits). New companies become dominant. New or different architecture on top of the layer. A change in the business models for the layers. Some potential platform shifts over the last few decades: [...]

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Report: Microsoft sought to sell Bing to Apple in 2020

    Sources told Bloomberg on Thursday that the idea came up in 2020. Microsoft executives reportedly met with Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, to discuss a potential deal. Bloomberg’s sources said that the goal of the sale would have been to replace Google with Bing as the default search engine on iOS.

  • El País ☛ The background of a Zoom call is the new business suit

    Ever since meetings went virtual at the beginning of the pandemic, they have become part of our new professional routine. More than 200 million people a day met on Zoom during March 2020. But the first impression that a person makes in these digital sessions is not the same as that of a face-to-face encounter; according to a study recently published by the magazine PLOS ONE. The background, the facial expression and the gender affect the perception of trustworthiness and competence of a person.

  • Windows TCO

    • ABC ☛ Maries County Emergency Managements says it was hit with cyber attack, says one 911 call affected

      Maries County Emergency Management announced Monday on its Facebook page that the Maries County Courthouse was the target of a cyber attack and that the attack is now over.

    • ABC ☛ Payroll issues: ransomware attack impacts 21 Pinal County school districts

      Iannarelli oversaw cyber-intelligence investigations and said there is a ransomware attack in the United States every 14 seconds. He says the FBI and law enforcement are very skilled at finding the hackers, but they are often hard to prosecute since they are overseas.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • New York Times ☛ How Peter Thiel’s Palantir Pushed Toward the Heart of U.K. Health Care

      But an outcry over Palantir’s rapid ascent within the N.H.S., the beleaguered but beloved public institution that provides free health care across the country, has been building for months among some lawmakers, doctors and privacy campaigners. It could come to a head in October, when the winning bid is expected to be announced.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ US Army awards $250M contract to Palantir to research and develop AI

      The three-year deal for AI services reportedly builds on the work Palantir has been doing since at least 2018 for the Army Research Lab. Per the terms of the new contract, Palantir will conduct research and development services in AI and machine learning.

      The finer details of the contract and specifics on what Palantir is developing and building for the army was not disclosed. Palantir, famously cagey when it comes to Department of Defense work, has not commented on the deal. The deal itself was only disclosed in a paragraph on a list of new DOD contracts published on Tuesday.

    • India Times ☛ X may start collecting user's biometric data under new policy

      Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) will now ask paid users verify their accounts using government IDs and a selfie. The company says that these steps are being taken to prevent impersonation and 'maintain the integrity of the platform'

    • uni Case Western Reserve ☛ Love games: Swipe at a price

      The dating app industry reported about $4.9 billion in revenue in 2022. While the pandemic drove up the revenue, post-pandemic growth has slowed; still, the industry is projected to reach 10% annual growth through 2030. Dating apps attract users by offering a freemium model where services are free and limited, thus tempting them to purchase their premium and à la carte options for an enhanced experience and greater satisfaction. Virtual gifts, access to a dating coach, more transparency on profile views, unlimited swipes and advertising—everything is on the table for revenue generation. Pursuit of a potential liaison is just a tap or a swipe away.

    • NYOB ☛ € 5,8 million fine for Grindr – appeal by Grindr failed

      In 2020, the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) filed a complaint to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority against the dating app Grindr for breach of the General Data Protection Regulation. noyb has assisted the NCC in its legal analysis. The Norwegian Privacy Appeals Board (Personvernnemnda) today announced that it upholds the Norwegian Data Protection Authority’s fine of NOK 65 million (approximately € 5,8 million).

    • Futurism ☛ Facebook Proud of New Glasses That Let You Record People Without Them Knowing

      Meta-formerly-Facebook just unveiled its new model of Ray-Ban smart glasses, and as you might expect, they're a privacy nightmare waiting to happen.

      Awkwardly announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the Meta Connect event on Wednesday, these new pieces of facewear, formally called an unwieldy "Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses," are a follow-up to the dismal flop Ray-Ban Stories. With a 12 megapixel camera, the specs can snap photos and record video at a solid 30 frames per second at 1080p.

      In addition, the shades, which'll officially be released next month, can now livestream up to 30 minutes at a time to either Instagram or Facebook, allowing anyone willing to shell out for its $299 asking price to play the part of being a tech-hip influencer.

    • The Register UK ☛ Norway wants Facebook behavioral advertising banned across Europe

      Norway has told the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) it believes a countrywide ban on Meta harvesting user data to serve up advertising on Facebook and Instagram should be made permanent and extended across Europe.

      The Scandinavian country's Data Protection Authority, Datatilsynet, had been holding back Facebook parent Meta from scooping up data on its citizens with the threat of fines of one million Kroner (about $94,000) per day if it didn't comply.

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ The Financial Dilemma: All You Need To Know About Credit Checking

      In personal finance, most people prioritize taking care of their credit scores and raise considerations about credit checking. Simply put, good credit is vital in determining your financial health and access to a broad range of financial services, which is helpful if you’re working on loans, credit cards, or acquiring investment assets like housing and cars.

      This article will cover the essential parts of credit checking and credit scores, what it entails, and how it can affect your financial lifestyle.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New Eastern Europe ☛ A modern-day ethnic cleansing: Karabakh Armenians flee as Azerbaijan takes over

    The past week marked the worst period for Nagorno-Karabakh, bringing a tragic end to the 30 years of existence of the breakaway state that proclaimed independence in 1991. While not recognised by any other country, Nagorno-Karabakh was backed by Armenia until the government under Nikol Pashinyan recognised it as a part of Azerbaijan after the 2020 war, paving the way for Baku to proceed with its coercive policy of “integration”.

  • Janes ☛ USAF seeks new SIGINT collection, processing capabilities

    The broad agency announcement (BAA), issued on 25 September by the information directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), is specifically seeking prototype proposals “[for] emerging cyber and SIGINT real-time processing solutions to improve tactical information collection, geolocation, extraction, identification, analysis, simulation, and reporting”.

  • The Hindu ☛ Another hijab controversy in M.P.; protest at Guna school after video showing girls wearing hijab

    The protesters, who alleged that Hindu girls were made to wear hijab, were seen engaged in a heated debate with representatives of the school management, who apologised to the ABVP members.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Sweden to call in military to help crack down on gangs [sic]

    "The wave of violence is... unprecedented in Sweden, but it is also unprecedented in Europe, no other country has a situation like the one we have," he said. "The police cannot do all the work themselves."

    In September alone, 12 people were killed in the wave of violence sweeping the country. One was killed in a bomb attack, and another 11 were shot dead in separate incidents.

  • RFERL ☛ Pakistan Is Planning To Deport Over 1 Million Illegal Afghan Refugees

    The caretaker cabinet in Pakistan on September 26 has given authorities the go-ahead to deport foreign nationals residing illegally in the country. This includes illegal Afghan refugees who sought shelter in Pakistan following the Taliban takeover two years ago.

  • RFERL ☛ The Azadi Briefing: Iran And Pakistan Plan To Deport Millions Of Undocumented Afghan Migrants

    Iran and Pakistan have hosted millions of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The Taliban’s seizure of power in 2021 fueled another exodus, with an estimated 3.6 million Afghans fleeing their homeland. Around 70 percent of them escaped to Iran, according to the United Nations.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • The Gray Zone ☛ As conservatives ramp up opposition to Ukraine war, Dems dodge The Grayzone

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • The Atlantic ☛ Trump Didn’t Go to Michigan to Support Autoworkers

    The Trump campaign is very good at manipulating the media, because it understands that liberal ideological bias is not the primary factor in shaping media coverage. The press, instead, is biased toward having a spectacular or interesting story that people want to read or watch or hear about. If you’re clever, you can manipulate the press into telling the story you want by making it seem fun and exciting, even if the story is incorrect or misleading. Given how easily the Trump campaign got the political press to take the bait here, there’s little question we’re in for a long campaign season in which it does it over and over again.

• Environment

  • Neil Selwyn ☛ Rethinking digital technology along environmental lines – inspiration from ‘Sustainable Computing’ and ‘Green IT’

    Two emerging areas of computer science – ‘Green IT’ and ‘Sustainable Computing’ – raise some fascinating directions for thinking differently about digital technology and environmental futures. These are attempts to look to nature as a means of reimagining computing – rooted in radically different starting-points from conventional IT industry obsessions with optimising processing power, capability and ‘performance’ at all costs. Instead, ‘Green IT’ and ‘Sustainable Computing’ anticipate out-doors, earthy forms of computing that are enmeshed with ecosystems of water, mud, trees, plants, sunlight and wind. These ideas might sound far-fetched, but are already proving possible. Here, then, are a few different directions that might be pursued in the name of digital degrowth.

  • DeSmog ☛ Major Polluters In ‘Ludicrous’ Push For Carbon Capture at Party Conferences

    A trade group for contested carbon capture with close ties to major oil and gas companies is sponsoring over a dozen events at the Conservative and Labour conferences over the next fortnight.

    Fossil fuel companies are using the technology as “a fig leaf” to pursue oil and gas drilling, campaigners have warned, as industry lobbyists across the energy sector seek to win over policymakers.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • WhichUK ☛ How much does it really cost you to leave your tech on standby?

      Turning off your larger tech products can seem like an easy win. Flick a switch on the socket and you're saving money. We can't argue with that.

      But, thanks to our tests, we know the savings could be so small that it may not make much of a difference to your energy bills. We’ve used the most recent price cap figure of 27.35p per kWh and created averages from tested models - including TVs and soundbars - so we can share with you how much your tech really costs to run.

    • Interesting Engineering ☛ Around the world with no emissions with Solar Airship One

      Euro Airship unveiled its groundbreaking project, Solar Airship One, in a historic move towards sustainable aviation in a press release. This innovative venture promises to revolutionize long-distance aviation by completing a non-stop world tour spanning over 24,854 miles (40,000 kilometers), all while producing zero emissions. Set to take flight in 2026, Solar Airship One represents a significant leap forward in the quest for environmentally friendly transportation.

    • Futurism ☛ Judge Warns Sam Bankman-Fried He's Facing a "Very Long Sentence"

      Disgraced [cryptocurrency] scion Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial is about to start heating up — and the judge has a stark warning for the FTX founder.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ Orcas Scared Off Great White Sharks in South Africa – Now We Know Where They Went

      Survival at all costs.

• Finance

  • RFA ☛ Short changed: Can China pay the bills?

    Property giant Evergrande boss under house arrest as ‘economic miracle’ turns ‘speculative bubble.’

  • DataGeeek ☛ Forecasting Freddie Mac with the DeepAR Algorithm

    Finally, we’ve forecasted the next 2 years for the whole variables with the GluonTS DeepAR model of the modeltime package. Unfortunately, this model is not reproducible, which means every time we run the model, different results come up. The source code has been embedded in the dashboard.

  • [Repeat] CoryDoctorow ☛ The surveillance advertising to financial fraud pipeline

    It's hard to be your authentic self while you're under surveillance. For that reason alone, the rise and rise of the surveillance industry – an unholy public-private partnership between cops, spooks, and ad-tech scum – is a plague on humanity and a scourge on the Earth: [...]

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Pro Publica ☛ DOJ Charges Ex-IRS Consultant With Leaking Tax Info to News Organizations

    The Justice Department announced criminal charges on Friday against a former IRS contractor for leaking confidential tax information to two unnamed news organizations.

    The DOJ’s description of one of those leaks appears to refer to the trove of IRS data that ProPublica used to report its “Secret IRS Files” series. The vast dataset contained details on thousands of wealthy Americans, and ProPublica reported dozens of stories based on an analysis of it.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Biden Says McCarthy Made “Terrible Bargain” With MAGA Republicans in Failed Effort to Avoid Shutdown

    President Joe Biden said in an interview on Friday that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had made a “terrible bargain” and that “in order to keep the speakership, he’s willing to do things that he, I think, he knows are inconsistent with the constitutional processes.”

  • Pro Publica ☛ Ruling Confirms Trump Used Fraud to Hype Property Values

    After months in which indictments in four successive criminal cases against Donald Trump raised the stunning, if distant, prospect that a former U.S. president could be put behind bars, it was the seemingly less momentous civil case in New York that this week generated the most tangible consequences so far: A dramatic fraud ruling that, if it survives appeal, could strip Trump of a chunk of the business empire that not only made his fortune but provided him with his very identity.

    New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, having previously made a preliminary finding that Trump, his sons and some Trump Organization executives “had a propensity to engage in persistent fraud by submitting false and misleading Statements of Financial Condition,” granted a partial summary judgment in favor of the state of New York. “Even with a preliminary injunction in place,” his lacerating opinion noted, “and with an independent monitor overseeing their compliance, defendants have continued to disseminate false and misleading information while conducting business.”

  • India Times ☛ Apple, China met to discuss Beijing's crackdown on western apps: WSJ report

    Apple has not disclosed how its app store in China will comply with Beijing's new rules. Experts said Apple's compliance could lead to tens of thousands of apps being removed from its app store in China.

  • Michael Geist ☛ Why Industry Minister Champagne Broke the Bill C-27 Hearings on Privacy and AI Regulation in Only 12 Minutes

    Canadians deserve better on such an important piece of legislation. The inclusion of both privacy and AI bills means that the committee has split the hearings as it will start with privacy and then shift after several weeks to AI (there are 13 sessions planned). But witnesses will presumably have to pick their issue and will only get the usual five minute opening statement to effectively discuss two bills. Once they pick, Champagne has now confirmed that they will be working with an outdated version of the bill since there will be an updated version that is revealed after witness testimony concludes. Given yesterday’s presentation, the committee should suspend hearings until the draft amendments are released so that everyone can comment on where the bill is headed, not on a year-old version that was rendered outdated within minutes of Champagne’s committee appearance.

  • BW Businessworld Media Pvt Ltd ☛ Jio Cinema To Get Former Google Manager Kiran Mani As CEO

    Jio Cinema is planning to appoint former Google general manager Kiran Mani as chief executive officer. Jio Cinema, India’s largest streaming platform, currently holds the broadcasting rights of ICC World Cup, IPL and many other major events.

    Mani formerly led Google’s Android operations in the Asia Pacific region. At Jio Cinema, he will lead technology development for the service and facilitate partnerships with Hollywood studios, according to a media report.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • MIT Technology Review ☛ Deepfakes of Chinese influencers are livestreaming 24/7

      Scroll through the livestreaming videos at 4 a.m. on Taobao, China’s most popular e-commerce platform, and you’ll find it weirdly busy.

    • New York Times ☛ China Uses ‘Deceptive’ Methods to Sow Disinformation, U.S. Says

      China not only pushes its own propaganda, the report said, but exports digital surveillance tools to police information and people online. Although many of the tactics detailed are not new, the report warned that they could “lead nations to make decisions that subordinate their economic and security interests to Beijing.”

    • US Dept Of State ☛ Global Engagement Center Special Report: How the People’s Republic of China Seeks to Reshape the Global Information Environment

      Every country should have the ability to tell its story to the world. However, a nation’s narrative should be based on facts and rise and fall on its own merits. The PRC employs a variety of deceptive and coercive methods as it attempts to influence the international information environment. Beijing’s information manipulation spans the use of propaganda, disinformation, and censorship. Unchecked, the PRC’s efforts will reshape the global information landscape, creating biases and gaps that could even lead nations to make decisions that subordinate their economic and security interests to Beijing’s.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Scheerpost ☛ Max Blumenthal: Where Did It All Go Wrong for the Internet?

    Blumenthal argues that liberalism, and in effect the Democratic party, works as a means to justify the true and insidious goals of the American empire such as regime change, suppressing class-based demands and maintaining hegemonic global control. This entails, says Blumenthal, “controlling the Internet, controlling the flow of information, finding everything as disinformation that contravenes their objectives, while perpetuating this sense that people, by voting for the Democrats, can actually be more free…”

  • University of Michigan ☛ U-M Library offering free copies of banned books Oct. 3-5

    People are invited to visit the tent outside Hatcher Library from 1-3 p.m. Oct. 3-5 to pick up a free book. Participants also can learn about actions they can take to resist bans and learn why the freedom to read is essential to a functioning democracy.

  • New York Times ☛ Supreme Court to Hear Challenges to State Laws on Social Media

    The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether Florida and Texas may prohibit large social media companies from removing posts based on the views they express, setting the stage for a major ruling on how the First Amendment applies to powerful tech platforms.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • ANF News ☛ A journalist and four HDP politicians sentenced to one and a half years in prison in Bursa

    In a first trial in January 2021, all five defendants were acquitted of the charge of terrorist propaganda, although two co-defendants received prison sentences of three years and eighteen months respectively. Because the public prosecutor wanted to see all defendants convicted, they appealed. The proceedings against those now convicted were reopened. The new trial began last June. The defense lawyers announced that they will appeal the verdict.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • JURIST ☛ Human rights groups condemn Malaysian police ‘scare tactics’ against peaceful protestors

    Human rights advocate groups Article 19 and CIVICUS on Thursday released a joint statement expressing concern that peaceful protestors across Malaysia are being met with harassment from police.

  • Futurism ☛ Sam Altman Says He Intends to Replace Normal People With AI

    Altman's hope is that artificial general intelligence (AGI) will have roughly the same intelligence as a "median human that you could hire as a co-worker."

    It's a disconcerting assertion, considering that it really sounds like Altman is looking to replace the work of normal people with a not-yet-realized AGI.

  • Business Insider ☛ Tech bros like OpenAI's Sam Altman keep obsessing about replacing the 'median human' with AI

    It's not the first time Altman has referred to a median human. In a 2022 podcast, Altman said this AI could "do anything that you'd be happy with a remote coworker doing just behind a computer, which includes learning how to go be a doctor, learning how to go be a very competent coder."

  • Vox ☛ Europe might abandon its animal welfare revolution

    In the summer of 2021, European Union policymakers promised to phase out cages for 300 million farmed pigs, egg-laying hens, rabbits, and other species, which Vox contributor Jonathan Moens then called “the most ambitious plan ever by any government to end the cruel practice.”

    But two years later, after pressure from the powerful European meat lobby and concerns over rising food costs due to inflation, extreme weather, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that legislation — along with a suite of other reforms that would reduce the suffering of potentially billions of farmed animals — has been thrown into doubt.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • India Times ☛ Net Neutrality battle a 'hard fought' one; important factor behind vibrant startup ecosystem: MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar

    The principle of net neutrality played an important role in making India a leading innovation economy with a vibrant startup ecosystem, and the battle to secure it was hard fought, minister of state for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.

    He added that India was one of the first countries to ensure net neutrality and push back against telecom companies seeking to be ‘gatekeepers of the internet’.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer) ☛ iFixit Requests DMCA Exemption…To Figure Out How To Repair McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines.

    Proprietary software sort of implies it will be a pain in the ass at some point and break down and cause you problems you can’t fix.

• Monopolies

  • India Times ☛ EU starts early-stage probe into Nvidia-dominated AI chip market's abuses: report

    The European Union is examining alleged anticompetitive abuses in chips used for artificial intelligence, a market which Nvidia dominates, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

  • India Times ☛ Explainer: Why is France raiding a graphics card company?

    Nvidia has a near-monopoly of the GPU market with 84% market share, leagues ahead of rivals Intel and AMD. With a market valuation of $1 trillion, Nvidia is also becoming crucial to fast-developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

  • Gizmodo ☛ EU Court Says Amazon Is Not a ‘Very Large Online Platform,’ for Now

    EU regulators listed Amazon as one of 19 Big Tech companies that fall under DSA laws labeling them as “Very Large Online Platforms” (VLOP), which is identified as an online platform consisting of more than 45 million users. Companies that fall under the rules are required to publish details of advertisements they receive including the ad’s content, the brand name or subject, and who paid for them.

  • The Verge ☛ Amazon claims it’s been ‘unfairly singled out’ by the EU’s digital content rules

    The retail giant is taking legal action to challenge the EU’s new content moderation rules for big tech companies, claiming that the company is being unfairly targeted by the legislation. On Tuesday, Amazon filed a petition with the EU’s General Court to request that the European Commission annul its decision to designate Amazon as a “very large online platform” (VLOP) under the Digital Services Act (DSA), arguing that the company doesn’t meet the requirements to fall under such a category.

  • Futurism ☛ France Just Raided the Offices of Nvidia

    In June, the FCA released a report on its probe into the cloud computing industry, investigating whether potential monopolism by companies including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft could be affecting competition in other industries that depend on their services, namely cloud gaming and AI.

  • Copyrights

    • Torrent Freak ☛ RIAA Ramps Up Efforts to Remove Music Download Apps from Google Play

      Over the past month, the RIAA has sent dozens of takedown notices to Google, asking the company to remove problematic apps from its Android app store. The targeted apps advertise themselves as music download tools. This includes the popular "Video and Music Downloader" app that was downloaded more than five million times.

    • Techdirt ☛ Publisher Wants $2,500 To Allow Academics To Post Their Own Manuscript To Their Own Repository

      The self-archived copies are generally the accepted manuscripts, rather than the final published version, largely because academics foolishly assign copyright to the publishers. This gives the latter the power to refuse to allow members of the public to read published research they have paid for with their taxes, unless they pay again with a subscription to the journal, or on a per article basis.

    • Quartz ☛ AI companies are hiring creative writers—and here's what they're looking for

      The library of pilfered works has become central to ongoing legal disputes between publishers and writers on the one side, and AI and fellow tech firms on the other. Earlier this month, a group of 17 writers including George R. R. Martin, author of the fantasy series that inspired Game of Thrones, sued OpenAI for training ChatGPT on their works without permission.

      Another group of authors, among them Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon, sued Meta this month for alleged copyright infringement when training its Llama AI, following an earlier suit against the tech giant filed in July on similar grounds. Copyright law, meanwhile, is still playing catch-up.

      Even if authors end up winning their cases against Big Tech, AI companies can still amass writing data through less dubious means. The hourly gigs targeting poets, novelists, and other skilled creatives are just one example. Whether or not they’re actually tempted to apply, there is a certain irony that writers are being summoned by the writing on the wall.